How can travel advisors best serve clients who are transgender or gender nonconforming? On this episode of Trade Secrets, hosts Jamie Biesiada and Emma Weissmann tackle that question and others related to transgender travelers with Scott Wismont, the owner of Rainbow Getaways in Kissimmee, Fla. Scott provides a number of useful resources, talks about the ‘X’ gender marker that’s now available for U.S. passport-holders and addresses how to serve transgender travelers if you haven’t worked with them before (spoiler: research, research, research!).
Trade Secrets will be going on a brief break for the holidays, but we’ll be back with new episodes in January. In the meantime, look for a new episode of Selling the Mouse next week.
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/Scott-Wismont-owner-of-Rainbow-Getaways.jpg?tr=w-768%2Ch-432%2Cfo-auto "Scott Wismont, owner of Rainbow Getaways")
Scott Wismont, owner of Rainbow Getaways
Credit: 2022 Jenn MartinsResources Mentioned in This Episode and Related Reading
Rainbow Getaways
Rainbow Getaways on Instagram
Wismont on LinkedIn
From Trade Secrets:
Pride in LGBTQ+ Travel Bookings
From Travel Weekly:
Traveling While Transgender by Abeni Jones (June 2021)
Focus on LGBTQ+ Travel by Abeni Jones (June 2022)
Jones on Travel Weekly’s The Folo podcast
From TravelAge West:
A Guide to the Programs That Help Expedite Travel
The U.S. Will Offer a Gender-Neutral Passport Option and Travel Security Measures
OutCoast in Florida
IGLTA, the International LGBTQ+ Travel Association
National Center for Transgender Equality
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If you're a travel advisor with a question about the latest travel news, trends, best business practices or more, please call our hotline and leave a message at 201-902-2098 or send an email to tradesecrets@travelweekly.com.
About Your Hosts
Emma Weissmann is the Managing Editor of TravelAge West, a print and online magazine for travel advisors based in the Western U.S. She is also the co-host of Humans of Travel podcast, where she interviews notable individuals in the travel industry about their lives — the highs and lows that make them human.
Jamie Biesiada is a Senior Editor with Travel Weekly. She is an award-winning journalist, including being named the American Society of Travel Advisors’ 2019 Travel Journalist of the Year. Her roots are in community journalism, where she was the editor of several local newspapers and a regional entertainment magazine.
About the Show
Trade Secrets, a podcast from the editors of Travel Weekly and TravelAge West, is where travel advisors ask — and answer — questions. On each podcast, our editors will ask a veteran travel industry insider to join them and field listeners’ questions. Topics will range from business advice to industry trends, history and more — as long as it’s travel-related, we want to address it! Find Trade Secrets wherever you get your podcasts, or at www.travelagewest.com/podcasts/trade-secrets.
